D'Alessandro: Clippers' Randy Foye, a Newark native, still takes hoops, life in stride

View full sizeJim O'Connor/US PresswireLos Angeles Clippers guard Randy Foye brings the ball up court in Wednesday night's loss to the Nets at the Prudential Center in his hometown of Newark.

Basketball is still the easy part. That could be printed on his business card. Sometimes life is a make-or-miss proposition, and the fact that he’s shooting 38 percent this season as a starting two-guard is irrelevant to him as long as he can consult the standings without cringing and suit up again tomorrow.

"You know me — I’m not afraid to fail," Randy Foye said Wednesday night in the hallway opposite the visitor’s locker room at the Rock. "And even if I take a shot and make it, I’m going to be back in the gym tomorrow and take so many it was like I missed it.

"I’m not going to pay attention to the numbers. A lot of guys — great players — are shooting under their averages this year. I’m just looking at the team record, and if I do something to help get the next ‘W,’ that’s all that matters. That’s what we play for."

And the Clippers are playing for it all. Sometimes you can’t believe the sentences you type on this job, and that’s one of them. But here is Randy Foye’s team, third in the Western Conference before their one-quarter effort against the Nets on Wednesday night — a 101-100 defeat — yet equipped with every piece necessary to get to the month of June.

So the kid from Newark East Side is a starter on a title contender. That happened because Chauncey Billups tore his Achilles and coach Vinny Del Negro figured Mo Williams — a former All-Star — should remain the punch guy off the bench.

So you realize, we told Foye, that you’re going from being a fourth guard to the guy that everyone is going to leave open in a tie game with two minutes left in a playoff game?

That’s a burden for someone who has spent his life flouncing around Lotteryland. His five years in the pros have produced the following records: 32-50, 22-60, 24-58, 26-56, 32-50. That’s five seasons of 27-55.

Foye laughed.

"If you know my history, you know I’m mostly successful in the fourth quarters," he said, before proving it with nine of his 24 points in the final period. "It’s just basketball. Yeah, I’m still getting used to a new role, because I’m used to having the ball. And I’m not a spot-up guy. But I’m picking my spots. And when I’m open I’m letting it fly."

Maybe his problem — okay, our problem, because we always wanted more — is that he does not fit a classic profile. He’s not a pure point, which he played for five years. He’s not a burner whose speed can turn around any matchup, and he doesn’t have the size for a two.

But he can defend and he has a winner’s attitude; he doesn’t believe in obstacles, and no matter how you measure him, Foye will always be a young man of uncommon fortitude.

This, lest you forget, was the kid that few knew about, until he printed two heart-wrenching words next to his bio in the Villanova media guide opposite the standard question about those "Person(s) you’d most like to meet."

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Those two words, of course, were "My parents."

This was the child who lost his dad to a motorcycle accident when he was two, and who lost his mom three years later to a mystery that will never be solved.

This was the kid who was lucky when it came to having a human shield around him in the Prince Street projects, as he can only guess where he would have ended up if not for his late grandmother, Betty Foye, and his aunt, Ruth Martin.

This was a son of Newark who was exposed to the kind of violence and degradation he’d like to forget, and one whose brother was lost to the streets (Christopher is still incarcerated) more often than he cares to remember.

This was the boy who was nurtured by Sandy Pyonin and Bryant Garvin, the coaches with the Roadrunners and Newark East Side and the father figures of his formative years.

This was the adolescent who used the guidance of a teacher, Maria Contardo, to grow into a man; and the young man who grew into an NBA player with a college degree because Jay Wright and Fred Hill Jr. pushed him harder than even he thought he could stand it.

And this is the pro who is regarded as a standard for other kids to follow: "It’s great for us at Villanova, because Randy’s such an idol," Wright said two years ago. "Not because of the player he was, but because of his character."

He came through the Prudential Center for the last time Wednesday night, with 300 family and friends and foundation kids rooting for him. He’s an L.A. guy now — married to his college girlfriend, with two daughters — and doesn’t come back often other than to run a one-week summer camp near Barringer.

If he wants to return with a ring, he has work to do. He’s playing well, but shooting inconsistently, and not a day goes by when you don’t hear rumors about the Clippers pursuing Ray Allen or Jamal Crawford.

"The role change is an adjustment for anybody, but Randy’s up to it, he’s getting acclimated," Williams said. "And if he doesn’t shoot well, he still playing awesome ‘D.’"

"When they talk about it, I have my better games," Foye said of the trade rumors. "And if they bring in another off-guard, they’re making a business move.

"But really, I’m not looking at it like, ‘Man, I’m going to the playoffs for the first time.’ I’m a competitor — I’ve always given everything I got, no matter how bad the team was. You know me, I only go forward, full speed."